Glacial Lance Build Guide: Freeze and Shatter Everything in Path of Exile 2
In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to build around Glacial Lance, from class choice to gear, support gems, passive tree planning, and gameplay tips to help you dominate both the campaign and endgame.
Why Choose Glacial Lance?
Glacial Lance is a cold spell that sends out multiple icy projectiles in a straight line. The projectiles deal cold damage, have high base critical strike chance, and gain bonus effects when targeting distant enemies. The lance explodes on hit, often freezing targets and dealing splash damage.
Core Strengths:
High single-target and AoE potential
Excellent crowd control through chill and freeze
Scales well with both crit and elemental damage
Spectacular visuals and satisfying shatter effects
Skill Mechanics Overview
Glacial Lance fires a series of ice shards that split off or converge depending on how you target enemies. It deals more damage to distant targets, and when paired with projectiles or crit scaling, it becomes a monster for both bossing and mob clear.
Key Interactions:
Freeze Chance scales with cold damage and crit chance
Far Shot mechanics give increased damage at long range
The skill naturally synergizes with Chill, allowing for smoother mapping and defense
Class Choice: The Witch (Elementalist or Spellblade)
While several classes can use Glacial Lance, the Witch offers the best synergy, particularly through the Elementalist and Spellblade subclasses:
Elementalist:
Access to Shaper of Winter for guaranteed chill effects
Liege of the Primordial gives golem buffs for survivability and damage
High elemental damage scaling and built-in exposure effects
Spellblade (new subclass in PoE2):
Focuses on hybrid spell + melee builds, but still benefits from cold scaling
Works well if you want to cast Glacial Lance alongside melee cold attacks for synergy
Recommended: Elementalist for pure Glacial Lance spell builds
Support Gems and Links
A proper support gem setup will drastically increase your DPS and utility.
Primary 6-Link Setup:
Glacial Lance
Increased Critical Strikes – Helps trigger freeze and shatter more often
Elemental Focus – Huge damage boost (but removes freeze unless offset by other mechanics)
Cold Penetration – Shreds enemy resistance
Spell Echo – Double casts for smoother clears
Hypothermia – Extra damage vs chilled enemies
Alternate Options:
Greater Multiple Projectiles (GMP) for mapping
Controlled Destruction (but lowers crit chance—use only if crit-capped)
Added Cold Damage for early leveling
Passive Skill Tree
Glacial Lance builds benefit from cold damage, elemental damage, crit scaling, and buy POE2 Currency area of effect.
Core Passive Nodes to Prioritize:
Elemental Overload (early game if not crit-based)
Cold Damage nodes near the Witch start
Critical Strike Multiplier and Chance
Cast Speed and Mana Regeneration
Heart of Ice, Deep Wisdom, and Arcane Will
Keystones to Consider:
Elemental Overload (temporary) → Later switch to Elemental Crit
Eldritch Battery if struggling with mana and using energy shield gear
Ascendancy Priorities – Elementalist
Shaper of Winter – Ensures all cold damage chills, even when you overkill
Heart of Destruction – Boosts AoE and single-target damage
Mastermind of Discord – Applies Cold Exposure automatically
Liege of the Primordial – Adds utility via golems and damage scaling
This setup gives you incredible clear, bossing tools, and sustain.
Gear and Stats to Prioritize
Weapon:
Wand or Staff with +Cold Spell Gems, +Spell Damage, +Crit Chance
Ideal mod: “Gain % of Cold Damage as Extra Chaos Damage”
Armor:
Chest: Look for +Life, %Spell Damage, or Energy Shield
Gloves/Boots: Resists, Cast Speed, Life
Helmet: “Glacial Lance fires an additional projectile” if available (endgame)
Jewelry:
Amulet: Critical Strike Multiplier, Cold Damage, Intelligence
Rings: Mana regen, Resistances, Cold Penetration
Flasks:
Diamond Flask – For crit scaling
Quartz Flask – Phasing + spell dodge
Wise Oak – Cold penetration if balanced correctly
Quicksilver Flask – Movement speed
Leveling Guide
Leveling with Glacial Lance is smooth after the first few acts.
Early Game (Acts 1–3):
Start with Freezing Pulse or Ice Nova
Switch to Glacial Lance as soon as you can get 3+ link gear
Use Frost Bomb and Orb of Storms to apply Exposure and increase DPS
Mid Game (Acts 4–7):
Aim for 4-link Glacial Lance with supports like GMP, Hypothermia
Pick up early crit and cold nodes in the Witch area
Prioritize life and resistances on gear
Late Game (Acts 8–10):
Move to 5- or 6-link setup
Upgrade your wand/staff
Begin focusing on crit-based scaling and high DPS
Endgame Bossing and Mapping Tips
For Bossing:
Use Frostbite curse (manually or with a ring)
Preload Arcane Surge or Vaal Righteous Fire for a damage burst
Keep a Summon Golem up for the Liege of the Primordial bonus
For Mapping:
Use GMP and Spell Echo for wave clear
Freeze and shatter keeps you safe — combine with Bonechill for stacking chill effects
Movement skills like Flame Dash or Frostblink help with repositioning
Defensive Layers and Survivability
Freeze + Chill acts as soft crowd control
Energy Shield + Life Hybrid provides a buffer
Use Arctic Armour or Tempest Shield for elemental mitigation
Cap all elemental resistances early and prioritize Chaos Resist for higher-tier maps
Conclusion
Glacial Lance is a versatile, powerful, and satisfying skill that rewards intelligent positioning, crit scaling, and strategic freezing. With the right support gems, gear, and passive tree planning, you can create a character that dominates both solo and group content — turning the battlefield into a frozen graveyard of shattered enemies.
Whether you’re clearing maps with icy elegance or facing down a shaper-tier boss, this build will let you freeze and shatter everything in your path.